Heel-stiffener for boots and shoes



(No Model.) I

' B. ANDREWS.

HeelStiffener for Boots and sh'oes.

Patented June 14, I881.

' UNITED STATES PATENT OF ICE.

EMERY ANDREWS, OF KENN EBUN K, MAINE.

HEEL-STIFFENER FOR BOOTS AND SHOES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 242,737, dated June 14, 1881.

Application filed March 21, 1881. (No model.)

To all whom tt may concern:

Be it known that I, EMERY ANDREWS, of

Kennebunk, in the county of York and State of Maine, have invented a new and useful Improvement in HeeLStiffenings for Boots and Shoes, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to that class of stiffenings which are made of leather, leather-board, or other flexible material, and are molded or otherwise shaped to a desired form before being built into a boot or shoe.

In practice it is found that such stiffenings, as usually made, are more or less liable to lose their proper shape, especially when wet; and the object of my invention is to overcome this difficulty by re-enforcing such portions of the stiifening as are most liable to lose the proper shape by metal plates, and at the same time allowthe necessary flexibility to the main body of the stiffening; and my invention consists of a heel-stiffening. of leather, leather-board, or similar flexible material re-enforced by separate metal plates along the lower part of each side, as hereinafter described.

. In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 represents a stiffening embodying my inventipn; Fig. 2, the same'reversed; Fig. 3, a modified form of the same with a portion of the leather cut away to show the metal portion; Fig. 4, a stiffening before being molded to shape, and

Fig. 5 the metal portion before bein g attachedhaving the projecting points a a a, bent at right angles to the body of the same. They are then attached to the leather in the position shown in Fig. 4. The points a aa are passed through the leather and bent down on the opposite side thereof. The stiffening so made is then molded to any desired form, the metal occupying substantially the position shown in Figs. 1 and 2, covering the angle formed by the flange and body of the stifi'eniu g along its sides nearly to the ends thereof.

The metal part maybe made without the points a a a, and attached to the leather by any suitable means-such,for instance, as riveting-or the leather may be split a suffioient distance to allow the metal plate to be inserted therein, as represented in Fig. 3, or the stiffening may be formed of two pieces of leather cemented together, with the sheet metal occupying its proper position between them. In either case it is only intended that the metal plate shall re-enforce that portion of the stiffenin g most liable to lose its proper shape, and shall not interfere with the necessary flexibility of the main portion of the stiffening, as it would do were it one piece instead of two, as'

EMERY ANDREWS.

lVitnesses GEORGE F. MOORE, CHARLES W. Goonuow. 

